I have tried vermicelli biryani from the outer wrapper of the vermicelli pack. It dint come out that good for first two times and I thought its a lame recipe. Then once we went to dinner to my hubby’s friend’s place. She had made this vermicelli biryani along with raita,poori,kurma and payasam . The meal was hearty and we loved it… I was amazed by the taste of biryani and dint recognise that it was made with vermicelli for first few mouths. I wanted to note down the recipe,but dint … I knew she had added coconut milk and mint leaves… so I tried my own way and the result was just awesome… This is perfect when you host someone for meals,you can club this along with some other dishes to make a delightful spread!

To grind to a smooth paste

To temper

Oil+ghee - 3-4 tblspJeera/cumin seeds - 1 tspBay leaf - 1

Method

Roast the vermicelli with a tsp of ghee in medium flame,evenly with out changing its colour(if it not raosted vermicelli),you can also skip this part too. Grind the items given under ‘to grind’ table to a smooth paste with very less water.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan(I used pot shaped cooker) with oil and temper with the items given under ‘to temper’ table.

Add the chopped veggies along with tomato(if desired) and the mint and coriander leaves and fry in medium flame for 3 minutes. Add the coconut milk and bring to boil,add required salt.

Then add the vermicelli.Let it boil till it absorbs all the coconut milk and then keep the flame in lowest possible and cook covered for 4-5 minutes.

Garnish with cashews fried in ghee if you want,or just simply with chopped coriander leaves… serve hot with raita of your choice!

Notes

If you make the biryani with proper care/just like we make our rice biryani, you will get an equally yummy,delightful biryani.

Vegetables I used are-carrot,beans,green peas and cauliflower.

Don't cook for long time than mentioned as it will make the vermicelli sticky. Also increasing the water/coconut milk will make it sticky and gooey. Using less water ratio and cooking in low flame is the key to get it nice!

You can grind the mint leaves along with the grinding items.

You can use ginger garlic paste and add the whole masalas while tempering and avoid the grinding part,if you are lazy to do grinding!

THAYIR SEMIYA / CURD SEMIYA

This one,I recently had in one of my hubby’s friends house,she is a wonderful cook and expert in making biryani(Hyderabadi origin) and this time too she had made vegetable biryani along with raita,rasam and ladies finger curry and the ‘Thayir semiya’. I had this curd vermicelli for first time and asked her the recipe,I was like,why I haven't tried this before?? It was totally yummy and broke the assumption I had before tasting this,so if you are also like me,go and try it immediately!

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Stars(comments):

On seeing the pic nobody will recognise it is vermecelli biryani. Very new and different one.Looks awesome.My mom makes this thayir semiya too.Came out very nice and clicks are nice and i have the same bowl which u have kept the thokku in the last pic.

Mouthwatering pulao and thayir semiya. When I'm hard pressed for time, I go for semiya pulao instead of with rice. But as you said, little care has to be taken to get decent results. Gorgeous presentation as always.

Even I have tried Vermicilli Pualo, it tastes yumm..Only thing is I did not blend any ingredient instead used MTR Pulao masala along with ginger garlic paste. It tasted good. Vermicilli curd bath also tastes equally yummy.. Your pictures are tempting me to make again.

Both dishes look yummm...mmm..mmm...I have the recipe to semiya biriyani from a packet of 7star semiya. And thayir semiya from a cookbook.Though I do cook both of these, seeing yours makes me want to try again.

Loving both the dishes. I was skeptical about thayir semia first too but liked it after tasting it. As for the biryani, thsi is pretty much how i make vegetable biryani - must try it with semia - looks really good Raks.

Love both the choices..hard to pick which one is the best. I had posted a "Yogurt Sevai" ages ago with Pomegranate seeds and thaalithal..Semiya is so versatile. I guess it can pretty much be used in place of rice...except for sambhar saatham.LoL

Hey, I made the dosai over the weekend. It came out delicious and what a color! I had it with Thogayal. Yum!

Both the receipes are awesome.I once prepared vermicelli biriyani but it was ok only,as i didnt grind d items you mentioned in the grinding column.Instead i just added while tempering.Is that may be the reason.Have you ever tried like that.Incase if we're not having star anise means wat else we can put as the substitute or can we add garam masala.

Hi sudha, Thanks :)In case you dont have star anise its ok, you can omit it and use the rest of the things. Only the garlic,ginger and fennel(soambu) adds nice flavor.I too for the first times dint grind anything and made so bland,then it was not nice. If we make it properly with care exactly like our rice briyani, then this also comes out very nice. I used coconut milk powder,so I mixed coconut milk powder with 1 & 1/4 cup water. Thats it,no water separately. I dint fried my semiya,I just added as such.

hi, ths is the frst tm am vstng yr blog. i tried the semia biriyani recipe and it came out too goooooood!!!!!!!. my neighbours also tasted it and enquired abt the recipe. it's diff as well as trendy! thnk u!

I'm the kind of person who can't get measurements right even while making Maggi. I was very sceptical when I saw this recipe in the easy lunch section. But I had a few hours, and I tried it out today, and it was not just edible, it was delicious. Thank you from keeping me away from takeout lunch!

Hi Raks, I read the Vermicilli Biryani recipe on the product pack that called for Biryani Masala and wasn't very convinced as I thought it might be a strong flavor against the bland Vermicilli base. I looked up the recipe and found yours to be different and tried your method. The Semiya Biryani turned out delicious, I enjoyed it with Boondi raita. Thank you very much for sharing this. Have a fantastic week ahead.